Winners of the Landscape Tour Essay Contest!

Congratulations to the three winners of the 2013 Post-Tour Essay Contest!  Many thanks to the “literary gentlemen” of MBCA who served as judges:  Curt Duffy, Greg Gilbert, and Mike Lipsitz.

1^st place winner, Susan Jordon, receives a $200 gift certificate for Unique Nursery.

2^nd place winner, Sylvia LaBonte’, receives a $150 gift certificate for Cactus Mart.

3^rd place winner, Carole Hiestand, receives a $100 gift certificate for Wind Walkers.

We will alert you when the winners’ creative submissions are posted on the MBCA website.  Reading them will make you happily reminisce about your experience if you participated in the Tour, and are likely to make you want to participate next year if you haven’t!

Desert Wise Landscape Tour a Success!

Dear MBCA Members and Supporters:

The Desert Wise Landscape Tour was absolutely spectacular!  The weather was perfect. Our volunteer docents were eager, helpful, and dedicated to the success of the event.  The garden site hosts were knowledgeable and generous.  And, it appears that the tour-goers were enthusiastic and appreciative!

We will alert you soon to some photos of the Tour on the MBCA website.  We are so grateful to our docent volunteers and garden site hosts.   We learned that many of the hosts spent lots of extra hours in their gardens recently to bring them into prime viewing condition – Thank You!   Docents’ roles were varied, as greeters, parking attendants, and check-in gurus, and some also assisted with garden tours – it couldn’t have happened without them.  Deepest thanks to our Site Hosts and Docents!

Docents

(alphabetical by first name)

Al Willcut	Danny Sall	Kathryn (Kay) Taylor
Almut Fleck	Esther Shaw	Ken Lair
Ann Murdy	Gayla Blanton	Marina West
Bonnie Brady	Ida Foreman	Meg Foley
Carol Damon	Janet Tucker	Pat Freter
Cynthia Anderson	Judy Corl-Lorono	Steve Rieman
Dan Grieser	Kathleen Lowndes	Sylvia LaBonte

Site Hosts

(in order of site number)

1 - Robin Kobaly & Doug Thompson	11 - Melva & Don Matthews
2 - Kat & Bill La Haye	12 - Phillip Mayberry & Scott Walker
3 - Nancy & George Huntington	13 - Mike Lipsitz & Phu Do
4 - Cathy & Stan Zarakov	14 - Rich Gerston
5 - Phyllis & Richard Schwartz	15 - Cheryl Montell & Brian Leatart
6 - Nora Lousignont & John Lauretig	16 - James Berg & Frederick Fulmer
7 - Bobette & Tony Milici	17 - Miriam Seger
8 - Ron Cousino & Sean Mylett	18 - Cathy Sheehe & Mark Butler
9 - Ruth & Steve Rieman	19 - Joan Robey & Steve Stajich
10 - Shelly & Dale Fredenburg	20 - Josh Hoines (Joshua Tree National Park)

Additional thanks are extended to Dave Miller for the beautiful and useful design of the Tour Guidebook, to Mike Lipsitz and Greg Gilbert for editing, and to Judy Litowitz for providing registration services at WindWalkers on Tour Day.  And finally, thanks to the Committee members who put in many hours to make the Tour successful: Sarah Kennington, Ann Murdy, Ruth Rieman, Cathy Sheehe, and Cathy Zarakov, under the stellar leadership of MBCA’s Events Director Claudia Sall.  Thank you all!

Third Annual MBCA Desert-Wise Landscape Tour this Saturday, April 27th

Dear MBCA Members and Supporters:

It’s only a week away!  The Third Annual MBCA Desert-Wise Landscape Tour is Saturday, April 27. 

If you’ve been on a previous Tour, you know how enjoyable and educational it is.  If you haven’t made it yet, please consider it this year.  The owners of twenty Morongo Basin homes are showing off their water-wise garden achievements, including long-time fully mature desert gardens, art-and-sculpture filled gardens, small all-native gardens, and everything in between. The program descriptions will help you choose which sites would be of most interest to you.  We encourage you to register now.

A donation of $10 per person is requested to register for the Tour.  There are two ways to sign up:

1)        Pay in Person on April 20 or April 27.

Just come to the locations during the times listed below to register, and get all the necessary items (Program, Map, and wristband).

Saturday, April 20, 2013

MBCA Table at Yucca Valley Earth Day Celebration     9AM – 12NOON

Joshua Tree Farmers’ Market                                   9AM – 12NOON

Saturday, April 27, 2013 – Day of the Tour

WindWalkers in Joshua Tree                                    9AM – 12NOON

2)        Pay Online via Paypal at http://www.mbconservation.org/tour2013.html

Those who sign up through PayPal will receive an email receipt and then a follow-up email with a link to a PDF version of the Program & Map to print at home and bring to the Tour.  You can get your wristband at the first site you visit by showing your receipt.  Or, you can visit one of the locations above at the listed times and show your printed receipt to pick up your Program, Map, and wristband.

Please join the Morongo Basin movement to save water and energy by developing a fabulous water-wise garden.  You will be inspired and informed by this tour.

See you on the Tour!

Anza-Borrego's tough eradication project: Cutting the mustard

The invasion of Sahara mustard in Anza Borrego State Park is seriously threatening the wildflowers that grace the area each spring and draw visitors that are essential to the local economy. Details can be found in a recent article in the LA Times.

Is the Morongo Basin next? Please learn to identify and remove this plant from your property (you can find photos and facts at the MBCA website) and join us next Saturday, March 30th for a mustard pull in Joshua Tree National Park. The weed pull is from 8AM-1PM and volunteers meet at the Oasis Visitor center in 29 Palms to carpool to work sites.

RSVP for details and so we can anticipate equipment needs:
Kipp Callahan, 760-367-5575
Kipp_Callahan@partner.nps.gov

Our native flora and fauna thank you!

It's time to "Hold the Mustard"

Many thanks to Josh Hoines of Joshua Tree National Park for his informative and entertaining lecture on February 12, and to the Hi Desert Nature Museum for hosting the lecture.  Invasive species threaten native vegetation and provide fire fuel.  Learning to recognize and destroy them – early – was perhaps the most important lesson from the lecture. On that note----

Mustard Pulls

Joshua Tree National Park has partnered with MBCA for several years in the “Hold the Mustard” campaign. We received recent coverage in the Riverside Press Enterprise for this effort and YOU can be part of the solution!

There are mustard pulls in the Park every Saturday in March.  There is still time to join us on March 23rd and 30th.  This a great way to enjoy the recent warm weather in the company of kindred spirits, and eradiction of this invasive plant helps to preserve our glorious spring wildflower displays and to prevent fires. Find more details at:  MBCA Sahara mustard.

And don’t forget the closer-to-home MBCA Clean Team efforts to keep both mustard and trash from our assigned area on Twentynine Palms Highway in Joshua Tree.  Find out more via Deb Bollinger at stopinvasives@live.com or 760.819.9939.

Weeds, aliens, and exotic plants

Please join MBCA next Tuesday evening at a timely free lecture about the threat of invasive plants (coming soon to your neighborhood), given by entertaining speaker Josh Hoines of Joshua Tree National Park.  It will be held at the Hi Desert Nature Museum in Yucca Valley, Tuesday, February 12, at 6:30 p.m.  Hot cider will be served! 

FLOWERS VERSUS WEEDS – A RACE FOR RESOURCES

Want to know the difference between a weed, an alien plant, an exotic plant and an invasive?  Want to know the current threats to wildflowers at Joshua Tree National Park?  Join Josh Hoines, who will address invasive species and their threat to biodiversity, the economy, and the direct threats to the park.  Invasive species are considered the largest threat to biodiversity, second only to habitat loss.  Invasive species and their consequences are estimated to cost the American public an estimated $138 billion each year.

Josh is a vegetation ecologist with 12+ years of experience working with local, state, and federal partners to protect and preserve habitats and open space.  Currently, he manages the vegetation programs at Joshua Tree National Park including an active botany, restoration, invasive plant, native plant nursery, and recreation management.  Previously, Josh coordinated interagency habitat restoration across federal boundaries in southern Nevada.

Desert-Wise Landscape Lectures – October 13

The MBCA’'s next event in the Desert-Wise Living Series is an afternoon of presentations and demonstrations of water-wise and energy-wise desert landscaping from many local residents and experts, on Saturday, October 13, in Joshua Tree.  It’s exactly at the right time of year to get the best results from planting and landscaping.  Go to the MBCA home page to learn more, then click the link to register via PayPal.

www.mbconservation.org

It’s only $10 for the general public and $5 for MBCA members-- it will be well worth your time and money!

UCR Master Gardener Program

As a follow-up to those of you who have enjoyed learning about desert-wise landscaping from MBCA’s Landscape Tours, we have learned that there is going to be a new Cooperative Extension master gardener program at the University of California, Riverside campus in the Coachella Valley.  The program is tailored to Coachella Valley gardening (with some overlap with our Mojave Desert environment), and there is a volunteer requirement upon completion of the program.

Here is UCR’s advertising about the program:UCR Master Gardener program

MBCA's 2nd Annual Desert-Wise Living Landscape Tour is Sunday April 22nd

Spend your Sunday on a self-guided tour of 20+ homes selected for their desert-wise landscape gardens. Become inspired to create your own vision of desert-wise landscape and learn how others have achieved unique sanctuaries using low water consumption with native, drought tolerant and water efficient plants. 

The gardens are located in Morongo Valley, Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree, 29 Palms, Pioneertown, Landers, and Flamingo Heights. Tour hours are 9:00 – 4:00 pm. Tickets are $5 for MBCA members and $10 for the general public. (Discounted tickets are available when you combine the tour with a new MBCA membership). Visit the MBCA website to purchase your ticket on-line.

Registration will also be available at the following 2 locations on April 21:

Joshua Tree Farmers Market. Sign up at the MBCA table. 9am to 12pm

Yucca Valley Earth Day Celebration, Yucca Valley Community Center. Sign up at the MBCA table. 9am to 1pm 

After the tour, on Monday, April 23 – Sunday, April 30, you can purchase plants to fulfill your new vision and support the MBCA by heading over to the Cactus Mart in Morongo Valley. In support of the tour and as a fundraiser for MBCA, Cactus Mart will give a 10% discount for Landscape Tour participants and a 40% donation to MBCA, on plants purchased.

MBCA would like to thank AWAC, the Alliance for Water Awareness and Conservation, for their generous grant in support of the tour.

Desert-Wise Landscape Tour Sunday April 22nd

Last year’s MBCA Desert-Wise Living Landscape Tour was a great success, so the Second Annual Landscape Tour has been set for Sunday, April 22.  Spend a few hours enjoying some of the most beautiful and water-wise gardens created by your neighbors in communities across the Morongo Basin, and learn how you can do the same.  The cost is only $5 for members, $10 for others, and special deals are available, combining a tour ticket and MBCA membership.  Read more details and sign up at the MBCA website.  And while you’re there, you might want to read the clever and enthusiastic responses of last year’s post-Tour essay contest winners, also found on MBCA’s home page.

(below, Robin Kobaly's Water-wise garden)

Hold the Mustard Campaign-please join us for scheduled weed pulls

It may be the season of hearts and flowers (Happy Valentine’s Day!), but there is one flower that is not loved in our desert …. that of the Saharan mustard.  This aggressive plant reduces native wildflower abundance and creates fuel for wildfires.

Our annual “Hold the Mustard”  campaign is a cooperative effort with Joshua Tree National Park. Half-day weed pull parties are scheduled for the dates below. Please participate in one work parties listed to help “Hold the Mustard” and preserve the health and beauty of our desert.

8-11AM Saturday February 18th, 

8-11 AM Saturday February 25th

8-11AM Sunday March 4th

8-11AM Saturday March 17th

RSVP if possible so we can anticipate your equipment needs and notify you of any potential schedule changes. Contact Katie Kain 760-367-5575 or Katherine_Kain@nps.gov

We will meet at the oasis Visitor Center in Twentynine Palms prior to carpooling to work sites. Don't forget to bring water, sun protection, and snacks. Tools and gloves will be provided.

For each day that you volunteer, you will earn an entrance-free day pass to Joshua Tree National Park.

MBCA Board members Ruth Rieman and Pat Flanagan (with a very large Saharan Mustard) talk about the importance of eradicating this invasive plant at the recent MBCA Annual meeting.

Sahara Mustard: Hold the Mustard Campaign

The MBCA is working with Joshua Tree National Park staff to mobilize for this year’s “Hold the Mustard” campaign. We invite you to attend a presentation by JTNP’s Josh Hoines at 7 pm this Friday February 10 at the Old Schoolhouse Museum in 29 Palms.  Josh’s topic is “Flowers versus Weeds: A Race For Resources” and he’ll discuss current threats to wildflowers at Joshua Tree National Park by invasive species, with Sahara mustard prominently featured. We’ll pick up the $5 lecture fee for the first 20 members to join us in launching our campaign on Friday.  An MBCA representative will be at the check-in desk.

The Old Schoolhouse Museum is located at 6760 National Park Drive in 29 Palms.  Interested parties can meet with Josh at 5 pm for a no-host dinner at the 29 Palms Inn.  Contact Marion to RSVP for the dinner at 760.361.1202 or desert29palms@yahoo.com.

And there’s more!  Please join a “Hold the Mustard” work party on one or both of two Saturdays, February 18 or February 25.  We’ll work with park staff to pull mustard in high priority areas surrounding the park.  We’ll notify you of the specific meeting locations and times in the week prior to the event.

We have already had several sightings of mature, blooming Sahara mustard plants along Morongo Basin highways this year.  While we expect we’ll have a breather, with lower populations of mustard expected because of low precipitation, this gives us a great opportunity to regain control of this invasive, and to learn about a new, related species of mustard before it, too, takes over our beautiful desert lands.  Please let us know of any colonies of mustard that you see within the basin so that together we can ‘Hold the Mustard’!

Hope to see you at one or more of these events.

Succesful native plants workshop

The last in our 2011 series of Desert-Wise Landscape Events, held on November 5th at the JT Community Center, was well attended and enthusiastically appreciated.  Thank you to everyone who helped make this workshop a success! Robin Kobaly’s engaging presentation and hands-on displays of soils, plants, and landscape design and planning tools accented the lecture in addition to the DVD and workbook materials received by participants.  If you are interested in learning more about desert-wise landscaping, visit Robin’s website: Power of Plants.

"As a matter of fact, an ordinary desert supports a much greater variety of plants than does either a forest or a prairie." Ellsworth Huntington

Invasive Mustard Alert

The mustard is back. The invasive Saharan mustard is making an appearance all over the Basin and, unfortunately, inside the National Park, where it is coming up thickly in the eastern areas.

What can you do about this destructive invader? Learn how to identify and fight Saharan mustard on the MBCA Website Invasive Mustard page.

Alert! Native Plant Protection - Joint Yucca Valley Town Council/Planning Commission Study Session

Native Plant Protection will be the only item on the agenda for the joint Yucca Valley Town Council/Planning Commission Study Session on Thursday, October 2, 2008, 6:00 pm, at the Yucca Valley Community Center.

The stated purpose of this meeting is two-fold:

1. Compare and contrast the existing and draft [Native] Plant Protection & Management Ordinances.
2. Based upon Town Council direction, to further define [Native Plant] Design and Development Standards to be included in Section 89.0130 of the Draft Ordinance.
   

Please attend this meeting and make known your views on Native Plant Protection. Without public concern and enforceable ordinances, the wholesale destruction of native plants and wildlife habitat will continue.

MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: See Grading/Clear-Cutting and Land Use/Development pages on MBCA Website. Additional posts: Yucca Valley, Grading/Clear-Cutting.

Desert becoming susceptible to wildfires

Director of Natural History for the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Mark Dimmitt wrote: “During my 40 years of wildflower chasing, I never saw or heard of a large desert fire below 3000 feet elevation until the 1990s….”

Of course, “large” is a relative term that needs some perspective to make any sense, and this is usually provided by a comparison. And, on comparison, open desert land wildfires historically haven’t ranked anywhere near the magnitude of fires in other landscape zones such as forest, chaparral, valley grassland and so on.

Yet, anyone who saw the Sawtooth Fire of 2006 might tend to disagree. After all, this is the desert, and that fire burned over 61,000 acres. It destroyed 50 homes and 92 other structures and caused one resident death. If that isn’t comparative magnitude, what is?

MBCA Boardmember Mark Wheeler, who is also well known locally as a writer and naturalist, wrote this in a highly informative but sobering article in last week's Hi-Desert Star on changes in the local plant communities that increase the desert's chances of wildfire.

He summarizes:

Exotic grasses and the Sahara Mustard are extremely aggressive and will spread especially quickly into disturbed sites, whether they are disturbed by fire, grading, flooding or otherwise. Physiological adaptations give these plants a distinct advantage over most natives in recovery after fire incidents, and their growth habits extend the fire season. To whatever extent possible, these plants must be discouraged from becoming established. Failing this, we risk losing the desert to their weedy rule, and losing desert homes to increasingly larger wildfires.

Learn more about how we got this way in the rest of the article.

FOR MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: See the Plant Life and Invasive Mustard pages of the MBCA Website. Also, see more posts on Plant Life and Fire on this blog.

Desert Wildfire Workshop on Aug. 22

There will be a Desert Wildfire Workshop on Friday, August 22, 8:30 am-1:00 pm at the Yucca Valley Community Center.

This is a FREE event hosted by CAL FIRE, San Bernardino County Fire Dept, Town of Yucca Valley, and UC Cooperative extension. Refreshments!

House and Property: Featured speaker Steve Quarles explores fire susceptibility of various building materials, components, and assemblies with a Live Burn Demonstration. Steve is the University of California Building Materials Testing Expert and will burn deck assemblies, walls, fences, and more as part of a special day of presentations including local Fire Professionals. Find out what new California Fire Hazard Severity Zone ratings mean for living, remodeling, and building in the local desert.

Landscape: Firescaping basics including the arrangement of plants in the landscape, interactions between vegetation and structures, low water use landscapes, utilization of native plants, conservation of Joshua Trees, invasive weeds and more.

Environment: Special challenges of living in the “Wildland Urban Interface.” Variable climate, watershed values, increasing demands on water supplies, habitat in the human matrix, with presentations by local fire officials on local fire behavior and fire history in the valley.

Yucca Valley Community Center, 57090 Twentynine Palms Highway, Yucca Valley, CA. Call (909) 387-2242 for more information, or e-mail Kamcarthur@ucdavis.edu. Fire Demonstration information available here.

The State of California CAL FIRE Website also has current fire updates as well as extensive resources on protecting your home and property, including information on issues of Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI).

FOR MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: See the Plant Life and Invasive Mustard pages of the MBCA Website. Also, see more posts on Plant Life and Fire on this blog.

Invasive plants targeted by new National Council Plan

According to a press release from the U.S. Department of the Interior, "Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne...convened the National Invasive Species Council (NISC) at which he oversaw the adoption of the new 2008-2012 National Invasive Species Management Plan developed collaboratively by 13 federal departments and agencies and their partners."

Like many regions in the West, the Morongo Basin is increasingly plagued by invasive plant species, which can lead to displacement of native species and ruinous wildfires.

The new Plan, which replaces the 2001 plan, will "focus federal efforts to prevent and control invasive species, which are defined as species that are nonnative or alien to a nation or region and that cause or are likely to cause harm to the economy, environment or human/animal health." The Plan is viewable as a pdf here.

Read more about the devastation caused by invasives in the West in the "The Beige Plague" in the Los Angeles Times.


FOR MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: See the Plant Life and Invasive Mustard pages of the MBCA Website. Also, see more posts on Plant Life and Fire on this blog.

Gardeners invited to stump the pro's

"Gardeners will answer questions at the Garden Club meeting from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at Belfield Hall" in Landers, according to the Hi-Desert Star.

Local gardeners are encouraged to bring their most unusual or perplexing problems and try to stump the garden club members. A trophy will be given to the winner. Members of the trophy club have over 100 years experience in plant survival and share their successes. Belfield Hall is at 58340 Reche Road just east of the Landers Post Office and behind the Landers Association Thrift Store. For information, call Wilma Ochoa at 364-2838.

FOR MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: See the Plant Life page of the MBCA Website.

Old skills and new learners

In a time of spiraling fuel costs, the lack of local agricultural resources in the Morongo Basin can leave residents vulnerable to rising food prices. But growing one's own produce is possible in the desert, with the right techniques. An article in last Saturday's Hi-Desert Star details the adventures and tasty rewards of two Yucca Valley boys planting an organic vegetable garden with their grandmother in Joshua Tree.